Front Game Rules

Two teams, composed of two celebrities and one contestant, compete. The first round was played one of two ways. Originally, each celebrity had 45 seconds to draw two word puzzles for his/her teammates to identify. Each pairing shared a common word (for instance, "Fire Wood" and "Brush Fire"). If the team managed to guess both puzzles, the contestant won $200; if not, nothing was earned. Later, this was changed to a simple matter of drawing a series of puzzles which all shared the same word (for example, "Bar Soap," "Candy Bar," "Bar Exam," "Oyster Bar," etc.) Each puzzle that was solved won $100.

For the second round, each team had three minutes to draw as many puzzles as possible. The civilian contestant drew first, and drawing responsibilities rotated with each puzzle. The puzzles used this time around were more lengthy, and the linking word changed from puzzle to puzzle. (For instance, "Pull up a chair," "Up to no good," "A rolling stone gathers no moss," "Rolling in the dough," etc.) Each puzzle was worth $100, and the drawer could pass if so desired. After each team had a turn, the team with the most money won the game. In the event of a tie, host Thicke himself would draw the tiebreaking puzzle for the civilians alone; the first player to shout out the right answer won another $100 and hence the game.

End Game Rules

In the bonus round, the team had 90 seconds to amass as much money as possible. One member of the team was given the duty of drawing all the puzzles, which this time were single words which connected into one another in Chain Reaction fashion. (For example, After-All-Gone-Fishing-Pole-Vault-Door-Jam-Pack-Rat.) The first three (later four) puzzles each won $100. The three that followed won $300 apiece, and every puzzle after that won $1000 each.

Notes

This show accounted for one of the most violent moments in the genre's history, involving guest celebrities Erik Estrada and Bill Maher. During the episode, Estrada was displaying nearly excessive amounts of enthusiasm for the game, and while thrusting his fists out in celebration for solving a puzzle, he caught Maher squarely in the nose, knocking him out cold and forcing the producers to stop tape. The game continued as planned, but Estrada hid behind the couch for the rest of the episode.